Ukraine announced on Friday that it had received the bodies of 563 soldiers from Russian authorities, mostly those killed in combat in the eastern Donetsk region. This exchange of bodies, along with prisoner swaps, remains one of the limited forms of cooperation between Moscow and Kyiv since Russia’s invasion in 2022.
“The bodies of 563 fallen Ukrainian defenders were returned to Ukraine,” stated the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War in a social media post. This repatriation marks one of the largest transfers of Ukrainian servicemen’s remains since the start of the conflict.
According to the statement, 320 of the bodies were recovered from the Donetsk region, with 89 identified as soldiers killed near Bakhmut—a town Russia seized in May after a prolonged and intense battle. Additionally, 154 of the bodies were returned from morgues in Russia.
Neither Ukraine nor Russia has publicly disclosed the total number of military casualties since the war began.